Casual Orange OOTD

     In case you didn't know already, I am a mom to 3 little girls that are now 6, 4 and 3.  My 6 year old goes to a private school that is about 15 minutes away and my 4 year old is in a preschool closer to home and they go to school on the same days, so I am doing a ton of running back and forth on those 2 days, which often means that I am wanting a comfortable, casual outfit, but I want it to still be very stylish.  Last week, I came up with this outfit that I really quite loved!

 I paired this long, patterned top that I bought off of a local Yardsale FB page (I believe it was originally from Target), with this orange cardigan that was a fabulous find from Zulily for maybe $8, long sleeved brown undershirt (another FB Yardsale find).  The jeans were another Yardsale find that were featured in this post with the marker stitching.  The boots were another Zulily find (seriously, I have a Zulily addiction and had to ban myself from getting on there for a while!), but this style of boot is fairly common and here is a similar one on Overstock.  The boot cuffs are another custom make from the local girl.

 The necklace was a creation that I made about a month ago and just could not let it go.  I was so in love with it, that I decided that it was just going straight into my closet, and I am so glad that I did!  This gets a TON of use and seriously, I need to keep more of my own pieces!  I don't have hardly any necklaces of mine, so I need to collect more of them.

 So here is a confession about a lot of the earrings that I own of my own creations.... Wire earrings are a bit of a challenge to make, then when you have to recreate a second one to be the exact same, I have been known to finish the second earring, just to realize that one is bigger than the other... SO, I usually keep those that I "mess" up... sometimes I create them just for me, but some of them are pairs that didn't live up to my selling quality and this was one of those pairs.  One of the earrings was bigger than the other, but when on my ears away from each other, no one ever notices, but these area a fabulous rich, bright mustard yellow and are a great pair to have.

Now I am excited to share with you these cuffs.... and No I did not make them, but a friend of mine did.  My friend Cathy is an incredible artist in creating these leather cuffs.  I have 6 I believe and I often will pair 1 with one of my bracelets and I love the combination.  If you are interested in seeing more of her creations, you can contact her via email at Candr123@hotmail.com.  You will be seeing more of her amazing creations on my wrists in future posts ;-)

So there it is all together.  Some great colors for the fall and I love the layers.  This time of year is the because of I SO love my layers!  The more, the better for me :-)

Share your comments, I LOVE hearing you!

Lindsi Jo

Jean Stitching Continued

Something that I want to do with every post, is show that item in an outfit.  This gives ideas as well as show that I really do wear these items in everyday life!  No one would know that I alter my stuff if I didn't point it out to them.  But I forgot to share an outfit on the post that showed sharpies to jean stitching. 

So here is a pair of jeans I purchased off of my local FB yard sale page for $8.  I almost didn't buy them because of the stitching, but once I tried the sharpie on these, I was hooked..... This pair I used the cheaper permanent marker & it works better than Sharpie.  You can see here, months later, that it is still holding it's color great!  My Sharpie ones have faded much more after washes.

I paired them with this fab shirt my friend sold me for a few dollars along with a clearance necklace from Forever 21 & my favorite ancient Old Navy wedges I got for $10 & have been a staple for years!  So as you can see, spent very little money for an outfit that I feel amazing in!

Denim Bleach

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend!  I headed up to our cabin with my family and while up there, I worked on a project I hope to finish and have posted this week, so stayed tuned ;-)

I purchased these denim leggings from Forever 21 last year.  I wore them quite a few times, but decided that the color was just way too saturated for me and needed to be a lighter color.  They really were almost a black/blue denim.

 I decided to throw them in my washing machine on the soak cycle with about a 1/3-1/2 cup of bleach to see what would happen.

To my surprise, they turned out this awesome blue color, which I then dipped into a tan dye just to give them a bit of dirty affect.

 Here is the Before and After

and today I paired them in a casual look as it was my 2 older girls first day of preschool and there was going to be lots of running around, as well as my 2 year old burned the bottom of her foot this weekend and got the biggest blister I have ever seen, which means I am carrying her everywhere.

I needed to be comfortable to do all of the running around and all of the carrying that needed to be done with my 3 little girls.  I am extremely big on the fact that you can still be a mommy-on-the-go and dress in cute, comfortable clothes that are not work out or lounge clothes.  

Not only am I really big on making things work, but I am really big on thrifting also.  This cardigan I purchased on my local Facebook Yard Sale page for $5 and then dunk it in a dirty tan dye to take out the white, my white shirt also got a tan dye and the necklace I am wearing was given to me by a sweet friend who knew I would love it.  The green braided cuff was a make a while ago out of the sleeves of a shirt I cut up and the wood cuff I I bought on ebay for $3.  I love creating outfits on little money and making things work for me!

Sharpie to Jean Stitching

     Have you ever had a pair of jeans and thought "I would really love these if the stitching wasn't so white?"  I doubt I am the only one out there that doesn't care all too much for WHITE stitching..... Well, some people may call me crazy, but I do have a way that I change all of my white stitching on my jeans......

      YEP, I use a Sharpie or a permanent marker!!!  I know many people out there wouldn't never care to take the time to do this, but it has made a big difference on a lot of pants.

     Out of order, but these are jeans that are all done with the marker coloring.  I like to use either copper, gold or brown.

      This shows what the before and after look like.  you can see that there is a BIG difference!  The top pair, I honestly wouldn't even wear them because I hated the white crowns so bad.  The reason I had them was because my husband really liked them on me.  After coloring the stitching and dipping them in a tan dirty dye, I actually really liked them!

      Another pair that you can see the process and what a difference it can make.

     I even did some coloring on the holey parts.  

It has been a few months since I have done these particular jeans and I will tell you this.  I have used actual Sharpies and I have used a cheaper brand of permanent marker and I liked the cheaper brand better.  The color has stayed longer through washes and the marker itself lasts longer during the process.  Like I mentioned though, it does fade.... my thinking though, faded gold or brown is still better than stark white.  So, it's your call, is it worth your time?  I actually did one of the pairs while on a road trip in the car!  I liked that I was accomplishing something while in the car ;-)